Introductions
Project goals and why we chose Health Initiatives for Men
Interest, passion, excitement and goals all separate excellency from mediocrity.
Our group took interest in this particular project because we passionately dislike food waste and loved the opportunity to use “wasted” food in a productive manner. This project gives us the ability to explore possible actions that can be taken to increase healthy food and nourishment availability in a food insecure community. We are excited to have the opportunity to build sustainable connections between Vancouver farmers markets and nonprofit organizations in need of produce. Our group looks forward to developing our communication skills with different stakeholders in the food system, as many of our future jobs will require us to do so. Most importantly we aim to see how our community is providing resources to minority groups such as the LGBTQ community and the Indigenous community living in the Greater Vancouver area.
What we aim to learn in LFS 350
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” – Benjamin Franklin
From LFS 350 our group hopes to:
- Gain an in depth understanding of community food security
- Better be able to see assets within the community that can be built on to improve the quality of life for the members within the community
- Gain experience collaborating with the community and peers to make substantial, meaningful, and long-lasting impacts in the community.
- To see a program that we create go through all the steps of implementation: research, outreach, brainstorming, interviewing, surveying, planning, and eventually successful running of the program!
- Investigate what type of learning environment we are most effective in.
- Use our learnings in class in a practical setting.
About Health Initiatives for Men
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well” – Virginia Woolf
Health Initiatives for Men is an organization within the Greater Vancouver area with the goal of bettering all aspects of gay, bi and other men who have sex with men’s health – physical, mental, social and sexual – by providing health promotional services through community volunteer engagement. HIM often plays a role as a mediator for bridging gaps between community members who have goods and services to offer, and organizations within the community that are in need. Our project’s objective is to determine vendors’ willingness to donate leftover produce from the West End Farmer’s Market, and other markets or CSAs (community supported agriculture) to go to food kitchens and food banks that serve at-risk communities, such as the Dr Peter Centre, Rainbow Refugees and Rainbow soup. Our goals are to develop an understanding of what the organizations are in need of as well as determining what vendors would be able to offer and the logistics involved in that, such as transportation of food, and how this would benefit the vendor. Additionally we would like to see sustainable connections built so that once the project is done, and the people who initiated it are no longer working on it, the relationships built between community members continue to grow and non profits continue to receive donations.
First Impressions
“For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity” – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Initially there was a lot of unclarity as to what our project goals were. After our first meeting with Josh, our community partner, the goals of our project were evident. Josh had lots of outcomes that he would like to see from our project and was able to suggest an initial step to take. We hope to incorporate an Asset-Based Community Development approach to our project. Josh has initiated the use of this approach by recognizing that there is a wonderful opportunity within the community -the left-over farmers market produce- and would like to help the members within the community to work together and better the quality of life of a vulnerable group within Vancouver (2). Additionally, during our meeting with Josh, we had a list of questions for him, however we ended up using the methods discussed by Ernesto Sirolli, by sitting and listening to Josh’s ideas (3). This was more beneficial than we could have anticipated as Josh was eager to tell us about not only his goals, but HIM’s goals for the project. Josh shared with us how organizations like Dr Peter Centre, Rainbow Refugees and Rainbow Soup all reassure that fresh, nutritious and locally-grown food is the centrepiece for encouraging health and community. By providing such food to at-risk communities, HIM is leading by example in this social-justice movement (1). Our conversations exemplified how community members should be the one’s identifying areas of improvement and areas in which they find strength and resiliency in any community based project (3). Such learnings were instrumental in fostering our “idea” of how ethically sound asset-based community development should be done (2).
If you enjoyed learning about us, our aspirations, Health Initiatives for Men and what HIM strives towards we invite you to continue following our journey. Keep an eye out for our next blog post as we will dive into our team’s project proposal, achievements, fondest memories and future strategies in implementing this worthwhile change. If you are passionate about community food security and health initiatives among minority groups then this is the blog for you!
Thank you for reading.
Works Cited
- Allen, P. (2008). Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities. Agriculture and Human Values, 25(2), 157–161. Retrieved through the UBC Library Website.
- Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 474–486. Retrieved through the UBC Library Website.
- Sirolli, Ernesto. Ernesto Sirolli: Want To Help Someone? Shut Up And Listen!. 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2016.